How can I encrypt and decrypt a string in C#?
29 Answers
Here is an example using RSA.
Important: There is a limit to the size of data you can encrypt with the RSA encryption, KeySize - MinimumPadding. e.g. 256 bytes (assuming 2048 bit key) - 42 bytes (min OEAP padding) = 214 bytes (max plaintext size)
Replace your_rsa_key with your RSA key.
var provider = new System.Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider();
provider.ImportParameters(your_rsa_key);
var encryptedBytes = provider.Encrypt(
System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello World!"), true);
string decryptedTest = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(
provider.Decrypt(encryptedBytes, true));
For more info, visit MSDN - RSACryptoServiceProvider
The following example demonstrates how to encrypt and decrypt sample data:
// This constant is used to determine the keysize of the encryption algorithm in bits.
// We divide this by 8 within the code below to get the equivalent number of bytes.
private const int Keysize = 128;
// This constant determines the number of iterations for the password bytes generation function.
private const int DerivationIterations = 1000;
public static string Encrypt(string plainText, string passPhrase)
{
// Salt and IV is randomly generated each time, but is preprended to encrypted cipher text
// so that the same Salt and IV values can be used when decrypting.
var saltStringBytes = GenerateBitsOfRandomEntropy(16);
var ivStringBytes = GenerateBitsOfRandomEntropy(16);
var plainTextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
using (var password = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(passPhrase, saltStringBytes, DerivationIterations))
{
var keyBytes = password.GetBytes(Keysize / 8);
using (var symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged())
{
symmetricKey.BlockSize = 128;
symmetricKey.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
symmetricKey.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
using (var encryptor = symmetricKey.CreateEncryptor(keyBytes, ivStringBytes))
{
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cryptoStream.Write(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);
cryptoStream.FlushFinalBlock();
// Create the final bytes as a concatenation of the random salt bytes, the random iv bytes and the cipher bytes.
var cipherTextBytes = saltStringBytes;
cipherTextBytes = cipherTextBytes.Concat(ivStringBytes).ToArray();
cipherTextBytes = cipherTextBytes.Concat(memoryStream.ToArray()).ToArray();
memoryStream.Close();
cryptoStream.Close();
return Convert.ToBase64String(cipherTextBytes);
}
}
}
}
}
}
public static string Decrypt(string cipherText, string passPhrase)
{
// Get the complete stream of bytes that represent:
// [32 bytes of Salt] + [32 bytes of IV] + [n bytes of CipherText]
var cipherTextBytesWithSaltAndIv = Convert.FromBase64String(cipherText);
// Get the saltbytes by extracting the first 32 bytes from the supplied cipherText bytes.
var saltStringBytes = cipherTextBytesWithSaltAndIv.Take(Keysize / 8).ToArray();
// Get the IV bytes by extracting the next 32 bytes from the supplied cipherText bytes.
var ivStringBytes = cipherTextBytesWithSaltAndIv.Skip(Keysize / 8).Take(Keysize / 8).ToArray();
// Get the actual cipher text bytes by removing the first 64 bytes from the cipherText string.
var cipherTextBytes = cipherTextBytesWithSaltAndIv.Skip((Keysize / 8) * 2).Take(cipherTextBytesWithSaltAndIv.Length - ((Keysize / 8) * 2)).ToArray();
using (var password = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(passPhrase, saltStringBytes, DerivationIterations))
{
var keyBytes = password.GetBytes(Keysize / 8);
using (var symmetricKey = new RijndaelManaged())
{
symmetricKey.BlockSize = 128;
symmetricKey.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
symmetricKey.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
using (var decryptor = symmetricKey.CreateDecryptor(keyBytes, ivStringBytes))
{
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream(cipherTextBytes))
{
using (var cryptoStream = new CryptoStream(memoryStream, decryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
var plainTextBytes = new byte[cipherTextBytes.Length];
var decryptedByteCount = cryptoStream.Read(plainTextBytes, 0, plainTextBytes.Length);
memoryStream.Close();
cryptoStream.Close();
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(plainTextBytes, 0, decryptedByteCount);
}
}
}
}
}
}
private static byte[] GenerateBitsOfRandomEntropy(int size)
{
// 32 Bytes will give us 256 bits.
// 16 Bytes will give us 128 bits.
var randomBytes = new byte[size];
using (var rngCsp = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
{
// Fill the array with cryptographically secure random bytes.
rngCsp.GetBytes(randomBytes);
}
return randomBytes;
}
The following code is an improved version of Ghazal's answer to a similar question.
public class EncryptionHelper
{
private Aes aesEncryptor;
public EncryptionHelper()
{
}
private void BuildAesEncryptor(string key)
{
aesEncryptor = Aes.Create();
var pdb = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(key, new byte[] { 0x49, 0x76, 0x61, 0x6e, 0x20, 0x4d, 0x65, 0x64, 0x76, 0x65, 0x64, 0x65, 0x76 });
aesEncryptor.Key = pdb.GetBytes(32);
aesEncryptor.IV = pdb.GetBytes(16);
}
public string EncryptString(string clearText, string key)
{
BuildAesEncryptor(key);
var clearBytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(clearText);
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, aesEncryptor.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(clearBytes, 0, clearBytes.Length);
}
var encryptedText = Convert.ToBase64String(ms.ToArray());
return encryptedText;
}
}
public string DecryptString(string cipherText, string key)
{
BuildAesEncryptor(key);
cipherText = cipherText.Replace(" ", "+");
var cipherBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(cipherText);
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, aesEncryptor.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
}
var clearText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(ms.ToArray());
return clearText;
}
}
}
Encryption is a very common matter in programming. I think it is better to install a package to do the task for you. Maybe a simple open source NuGet project like Simple Aes Encryption
The key is in the config file and therefore it is easy to change in the production environment, and I don't see any drawbacks.
<MessageEncryption>
<EncryptionKey KeySize="256" Key="3q2+796tvu/erb7v3q2+796tvu/erb7v3q2+796tvu8="/>
</MessageEncryption>
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
var key = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("SUkbqO2ycDo7QwpR25kfgmC7f8CoyrZy");
var data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("testData");
//Encrypt data
var encrypted = CryptoHelper.EncryptData(data,key);
//Decrypt data
var decrypted = CryptoHelper.DecryptData(encrypted,key);
//Display result
Console.WriteLine(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decrypted));
}
}
public static class CryptoHelper
{
public static byte[] EncryptData(byte[] data, byte[] key)
{
using (var aesAlg = Aes.Create())
{
aesAlg.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
using (var encryptor = aesAlg.CreateEncryptor(key, aesAlg.IV))
{
using (var msEncrypt = new MemoryStream())
{
msEncrypt.Write(aesAlg.IV, 0, aesAlg.IV.Length);
using (var csEncrypt = new CryptoStream(msEncrypt, encryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Write))
csEncrypt.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
return msEncrypt.ToArray();
}
}
}
}
public static byte[] DecryptData(byte[] encrypted, byte[] key)
{
var iv = new byte[16];
Buffer.BlockCopy(encrypted, 0, iv, 0, iv.Length);
using (var aesAlg = Aes.Create())
{
aesAlg.Mode = CipherMode.CBC;
using (var decryptor = aesAlg.CreateDecryptor(key, iv))
{
using (var msDecrypt = new MemoryStream(encrypted, iv.Length, encrypted.Length - iv.Length))
{
using (var csDecrypt = new CryptoStream(msDecrypt, decryptor, CryptoStreamMode.Read))
{
using (var resultStream = new MemoryStream())
{
csDecrypt.CopyTo(resultStream);
return resultStream.ToArray();
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
/// <summary>
/// Summary description for Encryption
/// </summary>
public class Encryption
{
public TripleDES CreateDES(string key)
{
MD5 md5 = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
TripleDES des = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
des.Key = md5.ComputeHash(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(key));
des.IV = new byte[des.BlockSize / 8];
return des;
}
public byte[] Encryptiondata(string PlainText)
{
TripleDES des = CreateDES("DreamMLMKey");
ICryptoTransform ct = des.CreateEncryptor();
byte[] input = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(PlainText);
return ct.TransformFinalBlock(input, 0, input.Length);
}
public string Decryptiondata(string CypherText)
{
string stringToDecrypt = CypherText.Replace(" ", "+");
int len = stringToDecrypt.Length;
byte[] inputByteArray = Convert.FromBase64String(stringToDecrypt);
byte[] b = Convert.FromBase64String(CypherText);
TripleDES des = CreateDES("DreamMLMKey");
ICryptoTransform ct = des.CreateDecryptor();
byte[] output = ct.TransformFinalBlock(b, 0, b.Length);
return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(output);
}
public string Decryptiondataurl(string CypherText)
{
string newcyperttext=CypherText.Replace(' ', '+');
byte[] b = Convert.FromBase64String(newcyperttext);
TripleDES des = CreateDES("DreamMLMKey");
ICryptoTransform ct = des.CreateDecryptor();
byte[] output = ct.TransformFinalBlock(b, 0, b.Length);
return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(output);
}
#region encryption & Decription
public string Encrypt(string input, string key)
{
byte[] inputArray = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(input);
TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider tripleDES = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
tripleDES.Key = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key);
tripleDES.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
tripleDES.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
ICryptoTransform cTransform = tripleDES.CreateEncryptor();
byte[] resultArray = cTransform.TransformFinalBlock(inputArray, 0, inputArray.Length);
tripleDES.Clear();
return Convert.ToBase64String(resultArray, 0, resultArray.Length);
}
public string Decrypt(string input, string key)
{
byte[] inputArray = Convert.FromBase64String(input);
TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider tripleDES = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
tripleDES.Key = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key);
tripleDES.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
tripleDES.Padding = PaddingMode.PKCS7;
ICryptoTransform cTransform = tripleDES.CreateDecryptor();
byte[] resultArray = cTransform.TransformFinalBlock(inputArray, 0, inputArray.Length);
tripleDES.Clear();
return UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetString(resultArray);
}
public string encrypt(string encryptString)
{
string EncryptionKey = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
byte[] clearBytes = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(encryptString);
using (Aes encryptor = Aes.Create())
{
Rfc2898DeriveBytes pdb = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(EncryptionKey, new byte[] {
0x49, 0x76, 0x61, 0x6e, 0x20, 0x4d, 0x65, 0x64, 0x76, 0x65, 0x64, 0x65, 0x76
});
encryptor.Key = pdb.GetBytes(32);
encryptor.IV = pdb.GetBytes(16);
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms, encryptor.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(clearBytes, 0, clearBytes.Length);
cs.Close();
}
encryptString = Convert.ToBase64String(ms.ToArray());
}
}
return encryptString;
}
public string Decrypt(string cipherText)
{
string EncryptionKey = "0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
cipherText = cipherText.Replace(" ", "+");
byte[] cipherBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(cipherText);
using (Aes encryptor = Aes.Create())
{
Rfc2898DeriveBytes pdb = new Rfc2898DeriveBytes(EncryptionKey, new byte[] {
0x49, 0x76, 0x61, 0x6e, 0x20, 0x4d, 0x65, 0x64, 0x76, 0x65, 0x64, 0x65, 0x76
});
encryptor.Key = pdb.GetBytes(32);
encryptor.IV = pdb.GetBytes(16);
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (CryptoStream cs = new CryptoStream(ms, encryptor.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
{
cs.Write(cipherBytes, 0, cipherBytes.Length);
cs.Close();
}
cipherText = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(ms.ToArray());
}
}
return cipherText;
}
#endregion
}
Here is the sample how AES-GCM encryption/decryption can be done using Bouncy castle package.
I've found that sample when googled for possibility to decrypt data from GOlang crypto/aes api:
const (
gcmBlockSize = 16 // this is key size
gcmTagSize = 16 // this is mac
gcmStandardNonceSize = 12 // this is nonce
)
func encrypt(data []byte, passphrase string) []byte {
block, _ := aes.NewCipher([]byte(createHash(passphrase)))
gcm, err := cipher.NewGCM(block)
if err != nil {
panic(err.Error())
}
nonce := make([]byte, gcm.NonceSize())
if _, err = io.ReadFull(rand.Reader, nonce); err != nil {
panic(err.Error())
}
ciphertext := gcm.Seal(nonce, nonce, data, nil)
return ciphertext
}
.Net sample works like a charm with key (256 bit), mac (128bit) and nonce (96 bit).
Good example how to do this using PGPCore with BouncyCastle, very simple solution: https://blog.bitscry.com/2018/07/05/pgp-encryption-and-decryption-in-c/
I tried different solutions but this works best for me, some have bugs but this is perfect for me.
using (PGP pgp = new PGP())
{
// Generate keys
pgp.GenerateKey(@"C:\TEMP\keys\public.asc", @"C:\TEMP\keys\private.asc", "email@email.com", "password");
// Encrypt file
pgp.EncryptFile(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content.txt", @"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted.pgp", @"C:\TEMP\keys\public.asc", true, true);
// Encrypt and sign file
pgp.EncryptFileAndSign(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content.txt", @"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted_signed.pgp", @"C:\TEMP\keys\public.asc", @"C:\TEMP\keys\private.asc", "password", true, true);
// Decrypt file
pgp.DecryptFile(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted.pgp", @"C:\TEMP\keys\content__decrypted.txt", @"C:\TEMP\keys\private.asc", "password");
// Decrypt signed file
pgp.DecryptFile(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted_signed.pgp", @"C:\TEMP\keys\content__decrypted_signed.txt", @"C:\TEMP\keys\private.asc", "password");
// Encrypt stream
using (FileStream inputFileStream = new FileStream(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content.txt", FileMode.Open))
using (Stream outputFileStream = File.Create(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted2.pgp"))
using (Stream publicKeyStream = new FileStream(@"C:\TEMP\keys\public.asc", FileMode.Open))
pgp.EncryptStream(inputFileStream, outputFileStream, publicKeyStream, true, true);
// Decrypt stream
using (FileStream inputFileStream = new FileStream(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content__encrypted2.pgp", FileMode.Open))
using (Stream outputFileStream = File.Create(@"C:\TEMP\keys\content__decrypted2.txt"))
using (Stream privateKeyStream = new FileStream(@"C:\TEMP\keys\private.asc", FileMode.Open))
pgp.DecryptStream(inputFileStream, outputFileStream, privateKeyStream, "password");
}
I have an open source project called X509Crypto that leverages certificates to encrypt and decrypt strings. It's very easy to use. Here is an example for how to use it:
1. Use the X509Crypto Commandline Interface (CLI) to generate a new encryption certificate and key pair
>x509crypto.exe
X509Crypto> makecert -context user -keysize medium -alias myvault
Certificate with thumbprint B31FE7E7AE5229F8186782742CF579197FA859FD was added to X509Alias "myvault" in the user X509Context
X509Crypto>
2. Use the Encrypt CLI command to add a secret to your new X509Alias
X509Crypto> encrypt -text -alias myvault -context user -secret apikey -in "80EAF03248965AC2B78090"
Secret apikey has been added to X509Alias myvault in the user X509Context
X509Crypto>
3. Reference the secret in your program
Once you have an X509Alias established with your secret(s) added, it is trivial to retreive them in your program with the Org.X509Crypto nuget package installed:
using Org.X509Crypto;
namespace SampleApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var Alias = new X509Alias(@"myvault", X509Context.UserReadOnly);
var apiKey = Alias.RecoverSecret(@"apikey");
}
}
}
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